GOATMILK: An intellectual playground edited by Wajahat Ali

By ANDREW HIGGINS

Moshav Tekuma, Israel

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123275572295011847.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Surveying the wreckage of a neighbor’s bungalow hit by a Palestinian rocket, retired Israeli official Avner Cohen traces the missile’s trajectory back to an “enormous, stupid mistake” made 30 years ago.

“Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel’s creation,” says Mr. Cohen, a Tunisian-born Jew who worked in Gaza for more than two decades. Responsible for religious affairs in the region until 1994, Mr. Cohen watched the Islamist movement take shape, muscle aside secular Palestinian rivals and then morph into what is today Hamas, a militant group that is sworn to Israel’s destruction.

Instead of trying to curb Gaza’s Islamists from the outset, says Mr. Cohen, Israel for years tolerated and, in some cases, encouraged them as a counterweight to the secular nationalists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and its dominant faction, Yasser Arafat’s Fatah. Israel cooperated with a crippled, half-blind cleric named Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, even as he was laying the foundations for what would become Hamas. Sheikh Yassin continues to inspire militants today; during the recent war in Gaza, Hamas fighters confronted Israeli troops with “Yassins,” primitive rocket-propelled grenades named in honor of the cleric.

Last Saturday, after 22 days of war, Israel announced a halt to the offensive. The assault was aimed at stopping Hamas rockets from falling on Israel. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hailed a “determined and successful military operation.” More than 1,200 Palestinians had died. Thirteen Israelis were also killed. Read the rest of this entry »

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Every night around 8 o’clock, the terrified residents of Swat, a lush and picturesque valley a hundred miles from three of Pakistan’s most important cities, crowd around their radios. They know that failure to listen and learn might lead to a lashing — or a beheading.

Using a portable radio transmitter, a local Taliban leader, Shah Doran, on most nights outlines newly proscribed “un-Islamic” activities in Swat, like selling DVDs, watching cable television, singing and dancing, criticizing the Taliban, shaving beards and allowing girls to attend school. He also reveals names of people the Taliban have recently killed for violating their decrees — and those they plan to kill. Read the rest of this entry »

Volume 56, Number 2 · February 12, 2009

By William Dalrymple

Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia

by Ahmed Rashid

Viking, 484 pp., $27.95

Lahore, Pakistan

The relative calm in Iraq in recent months, combined with the drama of the US elections, has managed to distract attention from the catastrophe that is rapidly overwhelming Western interests in the part of the world that always should have been the focus of America’s response to September 11: the al-Qaeda and Taliban heartlands on either side of the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Read the rest of this entry »

Obama:
It will be the policy of my administration to actively and
aggressively seek a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians,
as well as Israel and its Arab neighbors. To help us pursue these
goals, Secretary Clinton and I have asked George Mitchell to serve as
special envoy for Middle East peace.

George is renowned in this country and around the world for his
negotiating skill. He brings international stature and a lifetime of
service. His years in the Senate were marked by strong leadership and
bipartisan achievement. His efforts on behalf of peace in Northern
Ireland were indispensable in reconciling a painful and protracted
conflict.

Time and again, in public service and private life, he has acted with
skill and acted with integrity. He will be fully empowered at the
negotiating table, and he will sustain our focus on the goal of peace. Read the rest of this entry »